Even though my own experience of poetry in school was not positive, this one is one that I remember with as much fondness as the machine of the Leaving Cert allowed. As an adult, I can appreciate it more than ever.
EPIC by PATRICK KAVANAGH
I have lived in important places, times
When great events were decided : who owned
That half a rood of rock, a no-man’s land
Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
I heard the Duffys shouting “Damn your soul”
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel –
“Here is the march along these iron stones.”
That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
Was most important ? I inclined
To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
Till Homer’s ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said : I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.
Note: Image from https://anirishmanabroad.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/kavanagh-memorial-statue-on-the-grand-canal-dublin1.jpg